


When A Baby Cries

by TalesOfOnyxBats



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Universe, Fluff, Gen, Humor, baby azula
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:33:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25127806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TalesOfOnyxBats/pseuds/TalesOfOnyxBats
Summary: Azula week 2020: Day 2. While looking for his sister, he comes across a baby that looks curiously like her.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 79





	When A Baby Cries

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Baby  
> Pair: N/A  
> Song: Within Temptation - The Last Dance (Music Box Version)

Crying echos around the jungle, he doesn’t exactly know where the wailing is coming from, but the baby doesn’t let up. Zuko frantically pushes vines and ivy aside. He hopes that the baby’s screams have nothing to do with his sister. 

He has to track her down but he doesn't even know where to begin. The Forgetful Valley goes on and on for miles. Now he has to set that task aside to find the baby. It doesn’t sound like it is in pain but the distress is plain in its shrill cries. 

At last he thinks that he has gauged the direction from which the cries emerge. He hustles, running short on breath, to the east. He finds the babe in a nest of vines and seaweed. She is positioned under a ray of light that has managed to break through the canopy.

Her face is red from crying so forcefully as she kicks her teeny legs. Zuko stoops down and scoops her up. She is relatively dry for being surrounded in rainforest water and he thinks that she is lucky in that she hadn’t been found face down in a small puddle. 

He cradles the poor thing in his arms and rocks her back and forth. It is awkward at first, he has very little experience with children. 

“It’s alright.” He tries softly. “You’re safe now.” He continues his rocking. “How did you get all the way out here?” 

At last her cries begin to slow. She blinks and looks up at him with vivid gold eyes before reaching out to grasp at his hair. She lets out a string of happy baby babble when she finally managed to catch a few strands. “I think that Katara’s going to like you.” He laughs. 

**.oOo.**

She is a fussy thing.

Noisey too. 

When she doesn’t get food when she wants it she begins to bawl. When she isn’t clean she howls louder still. Thirst brings the tears and so do temperature drops. Zuko has come to find that the baby likes to be swaddled in heaps of blankets. 

He wraps her up in them and picks up a bowl of fruit that Aang has taken the care to mash up for her. He spoons it into her mouth as he does every night before he passes her onto Katara for bedtime stories and lullabies. He finds that he isn’t creative enough for the stories and his singing usually makes the baby cry. She also isn’t fond of Toph’s singing. 

Zuko gives her the last spoonful and rubs small circles on her chubby little cheeks. She gives a little yawn and reaches out to grasp at nothing in particular. He gives a half smile, recalling the night before. It had been Sokka’s turn to hold her and a cloud of glowflies pass by. The baby had tried to snatch all of them at once, successfully managing to capture none until one landed on her nose. 

The baby had giggled gleefully. And she is doing it again while Zuko tickles her tummy. She might be fussy, but she is also happy. 

He just wishes that he could find her parents. 

**.oOo.**

“I may not have found her, but at least I found you. Right?” He finds himself mumbling to the infant. She looks up at him with those big bright eyes. At least she had made the misadventure at least a little worthwhile. 

He finds himself wandering around the camp, pacing anxiously. He is beginning to think that is time to call off his search. If Azula doesn’t want to be found, then she won’t be. He doesn’t want to leave the baby out here for much longer. It has been a task to keep the mosquito-flies from harassing her. And the spider-wasps are even nastier. 

It has been several weeks now and the rest of his party is growing weary and impatient. It leaves a bad taste in his mouth but he decides that if the week doesn’t close with a sign of his sister showing up, then he will abandon his question. 

Zuko hugs the little bundle to his chest and carefully strokes her head. She is asleep almost immediately. He makes his way into his tent and tucks her into her makeshift bed. It is a rudimentary nest of blankets and pillows but it serves its purpose, she typically sleeps through the night. Only waking if she is startled by a jungle sound; an odd howl or a shrill squawk.

Tonight is such a night. 

He wakes to the sound of her crying out and kicking her feet as a roll of thunder comes to pass. 

He scoops her into his arms again and lets her nuzzle her squishable cheeks against him. “You don’t have to be afraid anymore.” He mumbles.”I’ll keep you safe. And so will Aang and Katara and Sokka. You should see Toph when she gets going…” he rolls his eyes and chuckles at the thought.

“Anyways, it’s just a storm, see Toph already has a stone roof to protect us.” He motions the the structure encasing their tent. There is a single wall missing so that they can leave if they desire. Not that he has any thoughts of going out in rainfall that heavy and battering. 

“Go back to sleep now.” He mumbles and gives her a light rock. 

He finds himself wondering if she has seen any storms before this and who had cared for her if she had.

**.oOo.**

Azula’s head is hazy when she wakes. Everything in her mind, everything before her waking is foggy like a dream. Yet she knows it has all been real and it brings color to her cheeks. To have been wholly and one hundred percent vulnerable. Completely and truly helpless…

Zuko hasn’t yet woken and she has half the mind to leave before he does. Even if she wanted to flee, she couldn’t. The earthbender had put the exit on the wrong side. The door to their tent faces one of the three walls of earth. And the door to their earth shelter faces one of the tent’s walls. 

She supposes that she can burn a hole through that part of the tent’s wall but there is no sense in it. Besides, the little blanket nest he has made for her is admittedly cozzy. She nestles her face against one of the pillows.

He hadn’t known that he’d been caring for her for all of this time, but she very clearly remembers him muttering to her about how he was worried about her. About how he wanted to patch things up and start over now that their father isn’t around to poison them against one another. 

Azula sits up and stretches her arms. She supposes that it should feel strange to be herself again, but it really isn’t. Such is the mercy of that dreamlike sensation. Confined to the tent and with nothing else to do while she waits for Zuko to stir, she fidgets with her hair, raveling her bangs around her pointer and then unraveling them. 

At last Zuko awakens. “Hello, Zuzu.” She greets. 

He is fully alert faster than she has ever seen anyone upon waking. 

“A-azula?” He sputters. “When did you get here.”

“I’ve been here this whole time.” She confesses. 

The dots seem to connect as he notes the absence of a screeching baby. Agni, that must have been aggravating to deal with. And as embarrassing as it is, she is glad that she has had the opportunity to thoroughly annoy him and break his sleeping patterns. 

“I should have known.” He grumbles, rubbing the back of his head. “What kind of baby just shows up in a jungle? You had the same eyes…” he rambles. She can’t tell if he is pleased or not. 

A mischievous grin lights his face, “you cry a lot.” 

“Kiss my ass, Zuko.” She scowls, crossing her arms. 

“I could have just left you there, you know?”

“You and I both know that you wouldn’t have had it in you, even if you knew.” 

He sighs, “yeah, you’re right.” 

“I know.” She replies. 

“How...how did that even happen anyways?”

Azula shrugs. “Turns out, if you set enough things on fire, the jungle spirits get very angry.” She drops herself back onto the pillows with her arms tucked behind her head. Her hair fans out around her. “Or if you set the right things on fire. I’m not sure if it was a matter of quantity or quality.” 

He almost laughs but he seems to stop himself at the last moment. “So are you going to run off again or…?” 

“That depends, are you going to lock me up again?” 

“I won’t if you don’t give me a reason to.” He replies. “If you work with me…” he trails off again. 

She ponders his offer. Knowingly or not, he has taken good care of her. She is warm, well fed, clean, and comfortable. She had been...she had been  _ loved _ . The feeling is foreign to her with the spirit curse lifted. But it is still there on the fringes of her memory.

“I’ll make you a deal, Zuzu.”

“The last one turned out so well…” he grumbles. 

“It certainly did.” She smiles faux innocently. “If you can keep the whole baby thing a secret, I’ll come home and try to…” she considers her choice of words. “Make amends.” 

“Fine, but I can’t promise that the others won’t talk.” 

Azula groans at the notion of facing them again. Toph in particular is going to be a nightmare.

“Redemption is pretty fun, huh?” Zuko asks snidely. 

“A real joy.” She mutters sarcastically with something of a pout. She supposes that, should things work out, it might be worth her while.

“Don’t be a baby about it.” Zuko smirks. 

“I will light this tent on fire with both of us in it.” She threatens. 

“You recover quickly.” He notes. 

“That’s right.” She replies. But it isn’t entirely true, her mind is still unsettled and there are still many holes in her morals.She decides that if she can recover from one thing she can recover from another. 

Azula is no fool, she knows a sign when she receives one. She had been a baby; small and helpless, and needy. 

A baby. 

A baby and then--she looks at her hands--herself again.

A physical rebirth to go with a spiritual one.


End file.
